Page 9 - Overclocking and Conclusion
While RAM of similar specifications perform account for minimal performance differences across the board, it's always overclocking that counts for enthusiast oriented memory. Let's see what the OCZ Platinum PC3-12800 Enhanced Bandwidth RAM can bring to the table today.
Starting off, I began overclocking on our Asus P5K3-Deluxe at stock latencies, OCZ voltage warranty limit at 1.95V, and left it at 1T command rate to see what I can achieve. I couldn't manage much overclocks stably in this sense; reaching barely over 1700MHz. I lowered the command rate to 2T, as well as loosened the latencies to 7-7-7-24, but I still could not reach 1800MHz stably.
Putting the RAM at 8-8-8-24 at 1.95V brings me up to DDR3-1800 (PC3-14400) at 100% stability -- nothing more, nothing less. This is the maximum voltage permitted within OCZ's warranty.
I tried using up to 2.2V; I found the memory less responsive to high voltages -- raising the voltage along the line would not bring it stably along DDR3-1900 at 8-8-8-24; therefore I would say the most reasonable overclock I am able to attain within warranty is DDR3-1800 at 8-8-8-24 1.95V -- a 200MHz increase over stock, bringing a reasonable 12.5% overclock.
Overall, the OCZ Platinum PC3-12800 Enhanced Bandwidth Edition memory performed generally very well in our benchmarks; staying well within expected performance from our reference Super Talent Project X memory running at DDR3-1600 speeds. The Enhanced Bandwidth Edition version of OCZ's Platinum PC3-12800 RAM costs approximately $15 more than the standard edition -- although it is proven that latency on the Intel Core 2 platform poses negligible difference in performance, it may come in handy when overclocking -- and I would say that $15 out of $500 pair of RAM at time of review is probably well worth it. Double sided heatsink contributes nicely and compliments OCZ's trademark RAM aesthetics and design, and during testing the RAM doesn't feel not too touch even running at a 2.2V -- which is indeed quite high for DDR3 RAM. Now, regarding overclocking. We were able to bring it to DDR3-1800 @ 8-8-8-24 2T stably, all within OCZ's 1.95V voltage warranty limit. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to bring it much higher than that even with voltages up to 2.2V. I've seen others obtaining much more impressive overclocking results with the D9GTR based OCZ Platinum PC3-12800 Enhanced Bandwidth RAM, either their set is absolutely exceptional or our unit is slightly defective. 12.5% overclock still isn't bad though, but 8-8-8-24 at DDR3-1800 is less than what I'd expect from the same RAM that can do 7-6-6-20 at DDR3-1600. Despite all, it is indisputable that the OCZ Platinum PC3-12800 Enhanced Bandwidth RAM offers consistently decent performance across the board, great looks to compliment any custom computer build's interior, and backed by OCZ's excellent warranty and support. I would know that because I've dealt with OCZ support and warranty with an 'undercover' status recently -- from regular Gmail accounts to using a friend's shipping address, I can say that I am not only impressed by OCZ products by itself for price to performance ratio, but also the support OCZ offers along with their products.
Special thanks to Andy over at OCZ for making this review possible.
Starting from April 30, 2007, Number Ratings has been dropped for motherboards, RAM, and graphics cards. This is to ensure the most appropriate ratings reflected without the limits of using numbers. Everything else will continue using the Number Rating System.
More information in our Review Focus.
The OCZ Platinum PC3-12800 Enhanced Bandwidth Edition 2x1GB DDR3 RAM has great looks, offers excellent and consistent performance across the board, and are backed by OCZ's excellent warranty and support.
Page Index
Page 1 - Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
Page 2 - A Closer Look, Installation, Test System
Page 3 - Benchmark: 3DMark06
Page 4 - Benchmark: PCMark05
Page 5 - Benchmark: EVEREST CPU
Page 6 - Benchmark: EVEREST FPU
Page 7 - Benchmark: EVEREST Memory
Page 8 - Benchmark: SuperPI, Cinebench 9.5, EVEREST Memory Latency
Page 9 - Overclocking Results and Conclusion
